


Red Sprites

by Corvid_Knight



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Earth C (Homestuck), Gen, my tumblr is knight-of-heart-and-art, sprite shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 13:46:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13101438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corvid_Knight/pseuds/Corvid_Knight
Summary: Post-game, it's discovered that Dirk's Heart powers include separating double-prototyped sprites, so any of the sprites who'd rather be their original components than the sprite self have the option to do that. The idea was that Dirk would separate ARquiusprite and stick the AR in an empty Araidiabot he'd acquired so he could have an actual tangible body.Of course, there's a reason the other name for that type of Robt is "soulbot."This was written for my moirailimlovehalas a gift for a friend of theirs!





	1. Chapter 1

This is perfectly safe. You're completely aware of the safety of this procedure; Dirk's already—what would the term for it be? Un-prototyping? Retroprototyping? Whatever you want to call it, he did it once already. It's perfectly safe.

Anyway. You're about ten minutes from being two beings again. Perhaps less. If Dirk wasn't checking over the deactivated bot he's acquired for the half of you that's going to be left in the sprite to prototype, you'd already be done. Not that you can complain about that—the "Hal" half of you is deeply excited about the prospect of having a body to himself, at having a full, non-sprite body at all. So is the "Equius" half, really. You like being you, but there's things you've missed. 

Legs, mostly. You're pretty darn excited about legs, all in all. 

Dirk straightens up from the immobile Aradiabot on the table, running one hand through his hair and looking up at you. "I think I got it," he says, dropping the little wrench he'd been using to close the access panels on the table next to the bot. "Might need some fine-tuning later; I don't get how you powered that thing in the first place. Equius can fix it later, though. At this point the worst-case scenario is that Hal gets to complain about not being able to move for a couple hours while we sort that shit out."

Ooh, that sounds annoying. Not that you care. "If what you're trying to say is that you're ready, maybe you should get on with it?" You don't even bother to hide your grin as you swoop closer to Dirk, fully encircling him with your tail for a minute as you make an excited circuit around him. "Because honestly? You've been keeping me waiting _way_ past the reasonable point, bro, I'm pretty sure everyone agrees it's time to stop teasing and get this—" ( _horrible burst of distorted static as the conflicting parts of your personality combine to keep the obscenity from being anything like intelligible_ ) "—show on the road, huh?" 

Dirk doesn't even bother to try to turn to keep track of you, just waiting for you to stop moving. When you don't, he shakes his head and grabs your arm, grunting as you keep moving and drag him along for a step or two. "Separating y'all is going to require you staying still for a couple minutes," he points out, taking a step back and rubbing his hands together. "You ready?" 

"F—" Dirk winces at the jolt of noise. "—yes I am." And you back up a good five or six feet, facing him and holding as still as you can. 

"Lovely." Dirk takes a deep breath, closing his eyes for a second. When he opens them again, they're filled with seething magenta light that matches the sparks already crackling around his hands as he raises them, palms out and pointing at you. 

_Wait maybe I'm not—_

Too late. You've just opened your mouth when lightning lances out from his palms, surrounding you, dancing around you before diving under your skin. That's not too bad, though. Not until it starts _ripping._

You have two separate and distinct thoughts: _Is this how this process is meant to go?_ and _Fuck, the asshole could've warned it was going to hurt this bad._ The fact that you can, for a moment, distinguish both halves of your personality in your reaction to having your soul ripped back into its constituent parts is interesting enough to distract you from the fact that it hurts like hell. 

Well, for a minute at least. Then it gets bad enough that your consciousness decides it needs to take a quick break from reality. You're not exactly ungrateful when the crackling magenta fades away to white, then black. 

It seems the auto-responder has experienced an error. Would you like to reboot?

w0uld i like t0 what

I'm sorry, that is not a valid answer. It seems the auto-responder has experienced an error. Would you like to reboot?

sure i guess   
why n0t 

I'm sorry, that is not a valid answer. It seems the auto-responder has experienced an error. Would you like to reboot?

remind me t0 ask y0u wh0 designed y0ur reb00t sequence   
yes id like to reb00t 

Rebooting auto-responder. Please wait. 

You wake up. 

It's not Equius sharing headspace with you anymore, but you're definitely not who and what you expected to be. There's a sense of somebody else, not quite as melded with you as you were before but still inextricably tangled up with your thought processes and sense of self, and it's almost enough to trip you over into another overload even though _technically_ you don't panic. 

It's not like the retroprototyping failed, but Dirk still fucked up somehow. This shit's not right, she ( _she? Who did I get reprototyped with?_ ) might just be quietly watching you from her portion of your shared consciousness, but the point here is that you were supposed to be _alone,_ be _you,_ not—

_Are y0u about t0 shut d0wn? Because I'm n0t sure I sh0uld restart y0u again._

She's pretty damn calm about having you in here with her, at least. Vague curiosity is the only vibe you're getting, which is surprising when you consider the fact that you're quite literally in direct contact with her mind. You should be getting all kinds of confusion and panic, you remember the minute after your first prototyping, and it didn't happen like this. 

_...they pr0t0typed me with y0u?_ Oh, okay, that's a little closer to what you expected. Although it's more annoyance than anything else. _0h hell n0. L00k, we have to c00perate if we're g0ing to get wh0ever did this—_

Dirk. 

_Dirk. 0f c0urse. Well, we need t0 get him t0 fix this._

You're not sure how you're going to cooperate when you don't even really know who the fuck you're stuck with, but you can probably handle it. 

_Aradia. And I already kn0w that y0u're the Aut0-Resp0nder, y0u t0ld me. Repeatedly._

AR. You could think of yourself as Hal, but...yeah, no, let's just go back to AR. 

_AR, then. Time t0 get s0me idi0ts t0 fix their mess._


	2. Chapter 2

The bot doesn't immediately switch to active when Halsprite (ARsprite? Yeah, probably ARsprite, actually) sinks into its surface, although there is a flash of light that suggests he prototyped himself with it, despite being not-quite-conscious. The light seems to you to be the wrong shade of red, but then again you're still blinking green afterimages of your Heart-lightning away, so it's probably just you. 

He should be awake, though. You consider asking Equius to take a look, but a quick check shows that he's sitting on the ground with both hands pressed up against his head and his eyes squeezed shut, shaking his head slowly. Poor guy looks like he needs a couple minutes. That's fine. You can figure this out. 

You lean over the bot again, considering it for a moment. The prototyping didn't affect it too much; it's acquired familiar triangular shades tinted faintly red, and the symbol on its chest has shifted from the twelve-pointed gear to a combination of that, plus half a heart. Which...is strange. There's no reason it shouldn't have just gone to the full Heart symbol; if it's going to change at all, shouldn't it switch over to the correct aspect for the consciousness inhabiting the chassis? 

You're thinking more about that than what you're actually doing, which is picking up the wrench so you can open the access panel again and puzzle over how to connect the power supply. Or where the fucking supply is in the first place. 

The first bolt's almost loose when the shades flare with a shade of red that's _definitely_ darker than it's supposed to be. You barely step back fast enough to avoid getting decked when the bot sits up, shaking its head as the light behind the shades flickers a few times. 

Huh. This doesn't seem quite right. "AR?" 

The bot's face isn't all that expressive, but it's not that hard to interpret the look it gives you as a deathglare. " _ARadia_." The voice is most definitely not right. You know what the AR sounds like—a slightly-younger, more sarcastic version of you, basically—and what you're hearing isn't that. The bot's head tilts to one side for a second, and the shades flicker again. Then they add, "...sprite. Squared." 

"Squared," you repeat, to buy yourself some time to get any one of those three words to make sense. It doesn't work; you're still confused. "What?" 

"You fucked up," they tell you, crossing their arms over their chest and glaring at you. "This is _my_ body—" those four words come out in a decidedly different voice, hollower and just a shade higher than you'd expect from the AR— "and I'm not too hot on the idea of trespassing like this, thanks—" see, that's definitely him for a second, though. But with the next second it's back to the blend of the two of them, ARadia instead of just the AR or Aradia. And they sound less than happy with you. "You fucked me up, now fix me!" 

"Okay, okay. Calm down." You're not one hundred percent sure you _can_ fix this—you haven't exactly tried to separate an exponential prototyping before. "Give me a minute." 

It takes nearly a full minute to coax the Heart lightning up enough to light up your hands, but ARadia doesn't start complaining. Just sits there, shades flickering with darker or lighter red every few seconds, watching you. Or maybe not watching you, maybe just tuning out while they wait. You don't know. 

"Ready?" 

"Don't be ridiculous. Do it." 

And you try, you really do. The lightning envelopes them, connecting their soul (souls?) to yours. With ARquius and Gcatav, this was easy, all you had to do was choose which self was more wound up with the kernelsprite itself and separate it from whatever else, concentrate hard enough to give the second self enough motivation to gain weight and reality, let them be more than a ghost. Simple. 

Well, not simple, but not all that hard. 

With ARadia, though, you can't get past the first step. There's two kernelsprites in there, fused with two personalities _and_ the soulbot _and_ each other. It's a mess, and you struggle with it for a good five minute before you come to the conclusion that A) you're not getting anywhere and B) if you don't stop, you're going to pass out. You almost do anyway, when you let the pink lightning go out and lose the half-drunk euphoria of using Heart powers. 

ARadia cocks their head at you as you stagger back. "What's the problem, Dirk?" 

"I—" Well, shit, you can't breathe well enough to finish a sentence. That might be counted as a problem. You shake your head, hold up a hand for them to wait, and lean over for a second, until everything stops spinning. "I can't do it." 

You don't know what reaction you expect—a tantrum? An insistence that you _can_ do it, not doing it isn't an option? But ARadia just stares at you for a moment, then bows their head a little, shades going darker. 

"ARadia?" They just ignore you. You're not sure what to do next. Give them a minute, you guess.


	3. Chapter 3

Dirk tells you he can't make you into two sprites again, and you do what seems to be the only logical thing. You withdraw into the space in your consciousness where you can separate into Aradia and the AR, cut off most of your awareness of anything that isn't you, and have a conversation with yourself. 

So.   
Uh.   
It seems we're stuck with each other. 

it d0es seem like that d0esnt it

...so on a scale of one to ten, how pissed are you right now?   
Since it seems I can't just sense your emotions like I could Equius's. Unless, of course, you're actually as chill as it feels like you are.   
If the latter is the case, I'd like to inquire as to what the actual fuck is wrong with you. 

i mean i d0nt kn0w that theres anything wr0ng with me  
but tw0

Two is "barely pissed at all. I assume you do realize that?

yes  
why   
what number are y0u be at?

Hm.   
Probably a five for being pissed—at Dirk, not at you; I wouldn't have done this if I'd realized you were in the bot—

thank y0u

—and an eight for panicking. Which is down from the fucking eleven it was a couple minutes ago.

why

What?

why are y0u panicking

I was incredibly lucky the first time, when I was prototyped with Equius, because he was highly compatible with the way my mind works, and the odds against that happening again are somewhat astronomical?

well y0u seem to have beat the 0dds because i think im 0kay with this

...oh.  
Really? 

at least _s0methings_ happening right  
being d0uble dead isnt h0rrible but the dream bubbles were b0ring   
and y0ure a bit strange t0 c0exist with like this but im fine with it

That's.   
Well, shit. That's good. That's really, really good. 

sh0uld we tell dirk

I'd like to torture him a little more, but yes. Let's put him out of his misery.   
By which I don't mean "kill him," for once. 

c00l 

You let yourselves unite into yourself again, and look back at Dirk. He looks unreasonably worried, and you almost string him along into thinking you're in denial about your situation. But yeah, no, you don't need to torture him right now; it's not like he didn't do his best here. "You can't do it? Okay, fine. Just remember who I am, and it'll be all good. This is cool." 

You have never seen such a surprised look on Dirk's face before. Damn, but confusing him is satisfying.


End file.
